ID thread

Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Feb 13, 2009
Messages
1,411
Reaction score
2,041
Rating - 100%
21   0   0
Need help finding the thread that has pics of an OG
87B8284D-4EC3-4BD6-9F85-5120485CCF4B.jpeg
4859B7C2-2530-4430-9308-EC0215BB59D2.jpeg
Klunker with this frame and color. I think the owner’s first name was Bill. Thanks!
 
I don't ever remember seeing a thread about that bike.
I see a few issues with the information above though.
The frame that they are saying is a 1950 Spitfire, doesn't look like any Spitfire that I have found. I forget the frame that had the two mid tubes on them.
https://bikehistory.org/bikes/spitfire/
The frame you posted at the top of this thread is a Schwinn Tornado and not the same as the one Gary Fisher used. If you look closely on your frame the mid tubes actually continue on to become the seatstays. That is not the case for the Fisher frame. The twin mid tubes are separate from the seatstays.
 
Looking at the pics a little closer. I think the Fisher bike is the same frame as you posted first.

That would make both your bike and the bike that Fisher modified either a 1961/1962 Tornado/Typhoon.

What serial number is on your frame?
 
Man, that's not just A bike owned by Bob, that's THE bike owned by Bob. If it indeed is the one in Charlie's book above, that's the first Repack winner, arguably the first bike to win a mountain bike race!
I know Charlie Kelly is a member here, maybe he can weigh in on the bike.
He's not here much, but his user name is Repack Rider, same name on MTBR dot com. Might actually be easier to get ahold of him through the piano thing he does now.

Also, Gary is a good guy, you could probably convince him to sign the thing if you could meet him
 
Also, Gary is a good guy, you could probably convince him to sign the thing if you could meet him

He's been a super cool dude both times I've met him
 
Looking at the pics a little closer. I think the Fisher bike is the same frame as you posted first.

That would make both your bike and the bike that Fisher modified either a 1961/1962 Tornado/Typhoon.

What serial number is on your frame?
My frameset is a 1961
 
Here is a pic of the 59 Tornado that had the separate twin mid tubes. You can see they are welded to the seat tube lower than where the seat stays join the seat tube. This is the frame I was thinking the Fisher bike was, but I believe I was wrong.

1594668764775.png
 
I can't find a good catalog pic of the 1961 with your frame style, but I did find this information on it. Your frame style with the seat stays continuing on to be the mid tubes was only used from about mid 1961 to mid 1962. In 1961 that frame was a Tornado and they changed the name to Typhoon in 1962. So your frame is a 1961 Tornado.
 
That pamphlet calling it a '50 Spitfire I always chalked up to a faux pas by whomever put it together. However, I read an article interviewing Bob Burrowes, and he called it a Spitfire in the article. They weren't bike historians, just hippies throwing bikes off mountains :bigsmile:.
 
I can't find a good catalog pic of the 1961 with your frame style, but I did find this information on it. Your frame style with the seat stays continuing on to be the mid tubes was only used from about mid 1961 to mid 1962. In 1961 that frame was a Tornado and they changed the name to Typhoon in 1962. So your frame is a 1961 Tornado.
Also sold as a Skipper.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top